Emergency information delivery

ABSTRACT

Various systems described herein may allow a user&#39;s personal information, such as their medical history, to be automatically delivered to appropriate emergency personnel in response to a reported emergency, such as a 911 call, activation of a smoke alarm or security system, or other emergency. Various items of personal and confidential information may be stored in a secure location, and the user may provide advanced approval to have the information automatically delivered to emergency responders in response to a request for emergency assistance. For example, after the user initiates a request for emergency assistance, a computing device may determine whether the user has granted approval for emergency delivery of the user&#39;s confidential information, and if such approval has been granted, the computing device may request the delivery of the user&#39;s confidential information to the emergency responders.

BACKGROUND

Time is precious in an emergency situation, and valuable time can belost due to inadequate information being supplied to emergencyresponders. For example, firefighters responding to a smoke alarm mightnot be informed of the number of occupants in the home until it is toolate. Medical personnel may arrive at a home unaware of a victim'smedical history. There remains an ever-present need for greater levelsof communication in emergency situations, but in a manner that does notunduly compromise privacy.

SUMMARY

The following summary is for illustrative purposes only, and is notintended to limit or constrain the detailed description.

Features described herein relate generally to a system in which a user'spersonal information, such as their medical history, may beautomatically delivered to the appropriate emergency personnel inresponse to the emergency call for help. In some embodiments, variousitems of personal and confidential information may be stored in a securelocation, and the user may provide advanced approval to have some or allof the information automatically delivered to emergency responders inresponse to a request for or during emergency assistance. When the usersubsequently initiates a request for emergency assistance, a computingdevice may determine whether the user has granted approval for emergencydelivery of the user's confidential information, and if he/she hasgranted such approval, the computing device may request or perform thedelivery of the user's confidential information to the emergency serviceor the responder(s).

In some embodiments, the user's confidential information may be storedin a secure storage device, which may be separate and apart from thecomputing device that initially handles the emergency call for help.

In some embodiments, the user may associate different subsets of theuser's confidential information with different types of emergencies. Forexample, the user's identification and medical history may be relevantto medical personnel (e.g., paramedics, caretakers, person with power ofattorney for a resident, etc.) responding to medical emergencies, butnot for security-type emergencies, e.g., caused by a burglar breaking awindow. Law enforcement personnel (e.g., police officers) responding toa burglary alarm may need to know whether there are firearms and dogs inthe premises, and fire personnel may need to know the number ofoccupants in the premises and whether any of them are mobility impaired.The user may provide all of this confidential information to one or morecomponents of a system described herein, and may designate differentportions of the information as being relevant to different correspondingtypes of emergencies.

In some embodiments, the user may wish to tightly control thedissemination of the user's confidential information through the use ofone or more networks at the user's premises. The user may, for example,store the confidential information in a storage accessible to a wirelessnetwork, and may only provide the emergency responder with networkcredentials for logging in to the wireless network. When the emergencypersonnel arrive at the premises, the emergency personnel may carry acomputing device that can login to the wireless network (when in range)and request the confidential information. By limiting access to thosewho connect to the wireless network, the user can be assured that theinformation will not be transmitted over long distances and reduce therisk of being intercepted and compromised.

In some embodiments, the user may configure one or more networks (e.g.,wired or wireless networks) and/or different service identifiers,corresponding to different types of emergency personnel and/or differenttypes of emergencies. For example, a single emergency-related networkmay be established for communication with all types of emergencypersonnel. In other examples, one wireless network may be establishedfor law enforcement personnel, another for firefighters, and another formedical personnel, etc. Different login credentials may be provided tothese different emergency responders, and they may each login when theyarrive on site and retrieve the confidential information relevant totheir respective duties. In any of these examples, the emergency-relatednetwork(s) may be different from one used by the user for ordinary,non-emergency use. In some embodiments, the login credentials and/oremergency networks need not even exist until a call for assistance ismade. For example, one or more sets of login credentials for emergencynetworks, and/or the emergency networks themselves, may be automaticallyestablished in response to a request for emergency assistance.Furthermore, the login credentials for the various networks may beautomatically expired upon the passage of a predetermined amount of time(e.g., time since the alarm is received, time since the credentials aresupplied to emergency personnel, time since emergency personnel firstlog in to retrieve the confidential information, etc.).

In some embodiments, the automatic delivery of emergency information maybe triggered in response to an emergency phone call (e.g., 911) or analarm. In other embodiments, different subsets of information may beautomatically delivered in response to other types of communications,such as calls to different numbers, activations of security systems orfire detection systems, text or other messages to certain emergencynumbers, emails to certain emergency addresses, etc.

In some embodiments, the confidential information may be obtained fromanother computing device of the user, such as a smartphone of the user,instead of another device on the user's network. In such embodiments,the emergency personnel may simply connect directly with the user'ssmartphone instead of a wireless access point, for example, to obtainthe confidential information. The connection may be made using anydesired connection type, including wireless near-field communications(NFC), in which case the emergency personnel may initially be providedwith a password to establish an NFC connection with the user'ssmartphone.

The summary here is not an exhaustive listing of the novel featuresdescribed herein, and is not limiting of the claims. These and otherfeatures are described in greater detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, claims, and drawings. The present disclosure is illustratedby way of example, and not limited by, the accompanying figures in whichlike numerals indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network on which variousfeatures described herein may be used.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example computing device that can be used toimplement any of the methods, servers, entities, and computing devicesdescribed herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example process for implementing various featuresdescribed herein.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are examples of user interfaces in accordance withvarious features described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process in accordance with variousfeatures described herein.

FIG. 6 is an example user interface for delivery of user information toemergency responders in accordance with various features describedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of various illustrative embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a parthereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, variousembodiments in which aspects of the disclosure may be practiced. It isto be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and structuraland functional modifications may be made, without departing from thescope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 on which many ofthe various features described herein may be implemented. Network 100may be any type of information distribution network, such as satellite,telephone, cellular, wireless, etc. One example may be an optical fibernetwork, a coaxial cable network, or a hybrid fiber/coax distributionnetwork. Such networks 100 use a series of interconnected communicationlinks 101 (e.g., coaxial cables, optical fibers, wireless, etc.) toconnect multiple premises 102 (e.g., businesses, homes, consumerdwellings, etc.) to a local office or headend 103. The local office 103may transmit downstream information signals onto the links 101, and eachpremises 102 may have a receiver used to receive and process thosesignals.

There may be one link 101 originating from the local office 103, and itmay be split a number of times to distribute the signal to variouspremises 102 in the vicinity (which may be many miles) of the localoffice 103. The links 101 may include components not illustrated, suchas splitters, filters, amplifiers, etc. to help convey the signalclearly, but in general each split introduces a bit of signaldegradation. Portions of the links 101 may also be implemented withfiber-optic cable, while other portions may be implemented with coaxialcable, other lines, or wireless communication paths. By running fiberoptic cable along some portions, for example, signal degradation may besignificantly minimized, allowing a single local office 103 to reacheven farther with its network of links 101 than before.

The local office 103 may include an interface, such as a terminationsystem (TS) 104. More specifically, the interface 104 may be a cablemodem termination system (CMTS), which may be a computing deviceconfigured to manage communications between devices on the network oflinks 101 and backend devices such as servers 105-107 (to be discussedfurther below). The interface 104 may be as specified in a standard,such as the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)standard, published by Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (a.k.a.CableLabs), or it may be a similar or modified device instead. Theinterface 104 may be configured to place data on one or more downstreamfrequencies to be received by modems at the various premises 102, and toreceive upstream communications from those modems on one or moreupstream frequencies.

The local office 103 may also include one or more network interfaces108, which can permit the local office 103 to communicate with variousother external networks 109. These networks 109 may include, forexample, networks of Internet devices, telephone networks, cellulartelephone networks, fiber optic networks, local wireless networks (e.g.,WiMAX), satellite networks, and any other desired network, and thenetwork interface 108 may include the corresponding circuitry needed tocommunicate on the external networks 109, and to other devices on thenetwork such as a cellular telephone network and its corresponding cellphones.

As noted above, the local office 103 may include a variety of servers105-107 that may be configured to perform various functions. Forexample, the local office 103 may include a push notification server105. The push notification server 105 may generate push notifications todeliver data and/or commands to the various premises 102 in the network(or more specifically, to the devices in the premises 102 that areconfigured to detect such notifications). The local office 103 may alsoinclude a content server 106. The content server 106 may be one or morecomputing devices that are configured to provide content to users attheir premises. This content may be, for example, video on demandmovies, television programs, songs, text listings, etc. The contentserver 106 may include software to validate user identities andentitlements, to locate and retrieve requested content, to encrypt thecontent, and to initiate delivery (e.g., streaming) of the content tothe requesting user(s) and/or device(s).

The local office 103 may also include one or more application servers107. An application server 107 may be a computing device configured tooffer any desired service, and may run various languages and operatingsystems (e.g., servlets and JSP pages running on Tomcat/MySQL, OSX, BSD,Ubuntu, Redhat, HTML5, JavaScript, AJAX and COMET). For example, anapplication server may be responsible for collecting television programlistings information and generating a data download for electronicprogram guide listings. Another application server may be responsiblefor monitoring user viewing habits and collecting that information foruse in selecting advertisements. Yet another application server may beresponsible for formatting and inserting advertisements in a videostream being transmitted to the premises 102. Although shown separately,one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the push server105, content server 106, and application server 107 may be combined.Further, here the push server 105, content server 106, and applicationserver 107 are shown generally, and it will be understood that they mayeach contain memory storing computer executable instructions to cause aprocessor to perform steps described herein and/or memory for storingdata.

An example premises 102 a, such as a home, may include an interface 120.The interface 120 can include any communication circuitry needed toallow a device to communicate on one or more links 101 with otherdevices in the network. For example, the interface 120 may include amodem 110, which may include transmitters and receivers used tocommunicate on the links 101 and with the local office 103. The modem110 may be, for example, a coaxial cable modem (for coaxial cable lines101), a fiber interface node (for fiber optic lines 101), twisted-pairtelephone modem, cellular telephone transceiver, satellite transceiver,local WiFi router or access point, or any other desired modem device.Also, although only one modem is shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of modemsoperating in parallel may be implemented within the interface 120.Further, the interface 120 may include a gateway interface device 111.The modem 110 may be connected to, or be a part of, the gatewayinterface device 111. The gateway interface device 111 may be acomputing device that communicates with the modem(s) 110 to allow one ormore other devices in the premises 102 a, to communicate with the localoffice 103 and other devices beyond the local office 103. The gateway111 may be a set-top box (STB), digital video recorder (DVR), computerserver, or any other desired computing device. The gateway 111 may alsoinclude (not shown) local network interfaces to provide communicationsignals to requesting entities/devices in the premises 102 a, such asdisplay devices 112 (e.g., televisions), additional STBs or DVRs 113,personal computers 114, laptop computers 115, wireless devices 116(e.g., wireless routers, wireless laptops, notebooks, tablets andnetbooks, cordless phones (e.g., Digital Enhanced CordlessTelephone—DECT phones), mobile phones, mobile televisions, personaldigital assistants (PDA), etc.), landline phones 117 (e.g. Voice overInternet Protocol—VoIP phones), and any other desired devices. Examplesof the local network interfaces include Multimedia Over Coax Alliance(MoCA) interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, universal serial bus (USB)interfaces, wireless interfaces (e.g., IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15), analogtwisted pair interfaces, Bluetooth interfaces, and others.

FIG. 2 illustrates general hardware elements that can be used toimplement any of the various computing devices discussed herein. Thecomputing device 200 may include one or more processors 201, which mayexecute instructions of a computer program to perform any of thefeatures described herein. The instructions may be stored in any type ofcomputer-readable medium or memory, to configure the operation of theprocessor 201. For example, instructions may be stored in a read-onlymemory (ROM) 202, random access memory (RAM) 203, removable media 204,such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) drive, compact disk (CD) or digitalversatile disk (DVD), floppy disk drive, or any other desired storagemedium. Instructions may also be stored in an attached (or internal)hard drive 205. The computing device 200 may include one or more outputdevices, such as a display 206 (e.g., an external television), and mayinclude one or more output device controllers 207, such as a videoprocessor. There may also be one or more user input devices 208, such asa remote control, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, microphone, etc. Thecomputing device 200 may also include one or more network interfaces,such as a network input/output (I/O) circuit 209 (e.g., a network card)to communicate with an external network 210. The network input/outputcircuit 209 may be a wired interface, wireless interface, or acombination of the two. In some embodiments, the network input/outputcircuit 209 may include a modem (e.g., a cable modem), and the externalnetwork 210 may include the communication links 101 discussed above, theexternal network 109, an in-home network, a provider's wireless,coaxial, fiber, or hybrid fiber/coaxial distribution system (e.g., aDOCSIS network), or any other desired network. Additionally, the devicemay include a location-detecting device, such as a global positioningsystem (GPS) microprocessor 211, which can be configured to receive andprocess global positioning signals and determine, with possibleassistance from an external server and antenna, a geographic position ofthe device.

Although the example shown in FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration, theillustrated components may be implemented as software as well.Modifications may be made to add, remove, combine, divide, etc.components of the computing device 200 as desired. Additionally, thecomponents illustrated may be implemented using basic computing devicesand components, and the same components (e.g., processor 201, ROMstorage 202, display 206, etc.) may be used to implement any of theother computing devices and components described herein. For example,the various components herein may be implemented using computing deviceshaving components such as a processor executing computer-executableinstructions stored on a computer-readable medium, as illustrated inFIG. 2. Some or all of the entities described herein may be softwarebased, and may co-exist in a common physical platform (e.g., arequesting entity can be a separate software process and program from adependent entity, both of which may be executed as software on a commoncomputing device).

One or more aspects of the disclosure may be embodied in acomputer-usable data and/or computer-executable instructions, such as inone or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or otherdevices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor ina computer or other data processing device. The computer executableinstructions may be stored on one or more computer readable media suchas a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid statememory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, thefunctionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed asdesired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may beembodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such asintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and thelike. Particular data structures may be used to more effectivelyimplement one or more aspects of the disclosure, and such datastructures are contemplated within the scope of computer executableinstructions and computer-usable data described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process of collectinguser information and configuring the delivery of the user information toone or more emergency responders in the event of an emergency. Thesteps, features, and examples discussed in connection with FIG. 3 may beperformed by one or more computing devices in a communication system,such as communication network 100. As discussed below, FIG. 3 relates tocollecting and storing information relating to users, and configuringvarious computing devices so that the user information may be providedto emergency responders in the event of an emergency. In some examples,the steps and features of FIG. 3 may be performed by one or more devicesentirely within a user's premises 102 a, such as the user's personalcomputer 114, wireless device 116 (e.g., mobile phone or tabletcomputer), and/or gateway 111. For instance, a user may input variousdata, such as confidential data, via a set top box 113, personalcomputer 114, laptop computer 115, or wireless device 116, and the datamay be securely stored locally at the user's premises 102 a, eitherwithin the same device used to input the data, or within another securedevice (e.g., personal computer 114, gateway 111, etc.). In otherexamples, the steps and features of FIG. 3 may be performed by acombination of devices inside and outside of a user's premises 102. Forinstance, a user may input confidential information via a set top box113, personal computer 114, laptop computer 115, and/or wireless device116, after which the user's confidential information may be securelytransmitted to one or more external servers maintained by emergencyresponders (e.g., service providers, local governments, firedepartments, police departments, emergency response medicalorganizations, etc.), a local office 103 of a network provider, and/orsecure servers maintained at a remote third-party storage provider.Regardless of whether the user's confidential data is stored in one ormore devices on the user's premises 102 a, or whether it is storedsecurely by computing devices away from the user's premises, the devicesstoring the user's information (and/or additional computing devices andsystem) may be configured to identify reported emergency situationsaffecting the user and deliver the user's information to the emergencyresponse personnel responding the user's emergency situation.

In step 301, the user's information, which may contain in whole or inpart confidential information, is received and stored at one or morecomputing devices 200 in a communication network 100. The confidentialinformation received in step 301 may include any information relating toone or more users and/or the users' home that may be potentiallyrelevant to emergency response personnel. In various types ofemergencies, it may be useful for firefighters, law enforcementofficers, paramedics, and/or other responders dispatched to an emergencylocation to have information about the people present at the emergencylocation, the building layout and characteristics at the emergencylocation, and other relevant data relating to the emergency location.For instance, it may be useful to emergency responders to know thenumber of people residing at (and/or temporarily staying at) a house orbuilding to which they have been dispatched, along with the names, ages,heights and weights, and other physical characteristics of theindividuals. Additionally, it may be useful for law enforcement officersresponding to an emergency to be aware of the criminal histories, theoutstanding arrest warrants, the concealed carry permits, the militarybackgrounds or other relevant weapons or combat training of anyindividuals at the location. It may be useful to paramedics and otheremergency medical responders to have access to the existing medicalconditions (e.g., disabilities, diseases, allergies, etc.) and medicalhistories (e.g., past diseases and conditions, results of previousphysicals and other medical tests, etc.) for the individuals at thelocation.

In addition to information about the individuals residing at (ortemporarily staying at) a residence or other emergency location, theinformation received in step 301 may include information about thebuildings or structures at or near the emergency location, along withother relevant information about the location or neighborhood. Forexample, it may be useful for emergency responders dispatched to a houseor apartment building to have information about the layout of the houseor apartment building, including the numbers and locations of occupiedbedrooms, and the number and locations of possible entry and exit points(e.g., external doors, windows, fire escapes, roof access, etc.).Additional information relevant to emergency responders may includepotential threats at the emergency location, such as dogs and otherpets, firearms on the premises, or explosive or combustible objects(e.g., propane tanks or woodpiles) at or near the emergency location.Safety features of a building or home, such as the presence of first aidkits, defibrillators, sprinkler systems, fire extinguishers, gas shutoff valves, etc., also may be useful to emergency responders in variousemergency situations.

Any of the user information in the above examples, as well as any otherinformation that may potentially be used by emergency responders, may bereceived in step 301 from users or other data sources. In someembodiments, a user interface may be provided to a user, e.g., as partof a web-based application or standalone software application, to allowthe user to directly input various confidential and non-confidentialinformation. Such user interfaces may include text boxes, menus,dropdowns, and other user interface components configures to request andreceive different types of user information.

Referring now to FIG. 4A, an example user interface is shown forcollecting user and household information. In this example, a displayscreen 400 a is shown with user interface components allowing a user toinput the number of people living in the user's house, along withvarious information about each member of the household (e.g., name, age,physical characteristics, medical information, disabilities, and wherethe person sleeps in the house). In this example, the user interface 400a may be presented to the user via a home computing device, such as aset top box 113 or personal computer 114, or via a mobile device 116(e.g., smartphone, tablet computer, etc.). The user interface may beprovided as part of web-based software application or otherclient-server application, or as part of standalone software applicationinstalled on the computing device. In some cases, a local office server(e.g., 105, 106, or 107), third-party application server, or the gatewaydevice 111 on the user's premises may be configured to provide a userinterface to a client computing device to collect the information fromthe user in step 301. Thus, the information input by the user into theuser interface 400 a may be transmitted to another device, such as theuser's gateway device 111, a remote content server 106, or other remotestorage device within or outside of the user's premises 102 a.

In certain embodiments, the user information received in step 301 may beretrieved from one or more external data sources, instead of or inaddition to receiving user information input via a user interface. Forexample, a user's medical information and medical history may beretrieved from a database maintained by the user's doctor or otherhealth care provider. In such examples, rather than manually inputtingtheir medical information via a user interface, users may provideauthorization for their medical information to be retrieved from anexternal medical data source. Similarly, information about varioususers' criminal histories, gun permits, pets or registered firearms, andother user data may be retrieved from various external data sources(e.g., police record databases, state gun registration databases, etc.)rather than this data being input manually by the user. Informationreceived in step 301 relating to the user's home or premises 102 a alsomay be retrieved from external data sources, instead of or addition tobeing received directly from the user. For example, building layoutdata, structure entry and exit data, and records regarding the numbersand ages of occupants may be retrieved from local, state, or federalgovernment databases, building records and zoning databases, and othersuch data sources.

Thus, some or all of the data received in step 301 may be retrieved andstored automatically by one or more storage devices and/or softwareapplications, rather than being received as user input via a userinterface. As noted above, for confidential user information such asmedical histories, criminal records, and the like, explicitauthorization by the user may be required before the confidentialinformation may be retrieved. In some cases, a user interface may beprovided via a computing device on the premises (e.g., 113-115) or theuser's mobile device 116, allowing the user to grant or denyauthorization to retrieve the user's confidential information fromvarious external data sources. If the user grants authorization toretrieve certain confidential data (e.g., medical records, gunregistration records, etc.), the user may be prompted via a userinterface to provide necessary information for the system to retrievethe data from an external data source (e.g., health care provider,account number, username and password for an online website, etc.). Ifthe user does not grant authorization for the emergency informationdelivery system to retrieve confidential data from external datasources, the user's denial may initiate a user interface (e.g., 400 a)to allow the user the option to manually input the confidential data.

In step 302, additional data is received or generated to associate theuser information received in step 301 with one or more types ofemergencies and/or types of emergency responders. As discussed above,certain user information may be helpful to certain types of emergencyresponders in various situations, but might not be helpful to othertypes of emergency responders in other situations. For instance, thenames, ages, blood types, medical histories, and living will informationfor family members living at a premises 102 a may be useful for medicalpersonnel (e.g., paramedics, caretakers, person with power of attorneyfor a resident, etc.) responding to a medical emergency at the premises,but would not be helpful for law enforcement officers responding to abreak-in at the premises when the family was on vacation.

In some embodiments, the user may expressly determine which emergencyresponders may receive which specific pieces of information about theuser, the user's family (and/or roommates), and the user's home.Referring now to FIG. 4B, an example user interface is shown allowingthe user to designate specific types of user information for delivery todifferent classifications of emergency responders. In this example, theuser's information is classified into the several categories, includingfamily names, personal information, medical histories, the layout of theuser's home and the entry/exit points, and any weapons or pets at theuser's home. In the display screen 400 b, the user may use clickablecheckboxes to designate or de-designate each category of userinformation for a specific type of emergency responders (e.g.,firefighters, law enforcement officers, paramedics, etc.).

As mentioned above, the example user interface shown in FIG. 4B dividesthe user's information into the five different categories. However, inother examples, user interfaces may use different numbers or informationtypes/categories for grouping and displaying the user's confidential andnon-confidential information. In some cases, the user interface mayallow the user to define to the categories that group the user'sinformation. Grouping of user information into categories may beoptional and need not be performed in some cases, in which case the usermay have complete control to designate or de-designate each individualpiece of user information.

The example user interface shown in FIG. 4B designates user informationto be provided to different types of emergency responders, such asfirefighters, law enforcement personnel (e.g., police officers), andparamedics. However, in other embodiments, the user interface maydesignate user information to be provided based on the type of theemergency situation rather than the type of the emergency responder. Forexample, both firefighters and paramedics may be dispatched in responseto a fire, and the user may want both types of responders to be providedthe same relevant information in this situation. As another example, auser may wish to provide law enforcement officers responding to areported break-in different information, depending on whether the user'sfamily is home or away at the time of the reported break-in. Thus, insome embodiments, the user interface may allow the user to designatedifferent categories or pieces of information to provide to emergencyresponders, based on the emergency type (e.g., smoke alarm or firedetection system activated, fire reported by user, gas leak, flooding,break-in/disturbance reported by neighbor, break-in/intruder reported byuser, security system or burglar alarm activated, medical emergencyaffecting user, medical emergency affecting user's spouse, medicalemergency affecting user's children, etc.), rather than based on thetype of emergency responder.

In still other cases, the user may designate different categories orpieces of information to provide to emergency responders based on acombination of the type of the emergency responder (e.g., firefighter,law enforcement officer, paramedic, etc.) and the type of the emergencysituation. For example, paramedics responding to a fire may be providedwith a first set of user information, while firefighters responding tothe same fire may be provided with a different second set of userinformation, while firefighters responding to reports of a gas leak inthe home (but no fire) or other emergency may be provided with a thirdset of user information different from either of the first and secondsets of information.

In some cases, step 302 may be optional or may be performedautomatically by the software of one or more of the computing devicesdescribed herein. For instance, different categories of user informationmay be pre-designated for different types of emergency responders and/ordifferent emergency situations based on a determination of the types ofinformation that are most likely to be useful to emergency responders indifferent situations. In some cases, users may authorize emergencyresponders to designate which types of information they will receive indifferent emergency situations. In such cases, a simplified version ofthe user interface in FIG. 4B may be transmitted to an emergencyresponder in a certain locality or region. Users may be permitted tooverride and change any default designations or designations set byemergency responders, if the user does not want certain confidentialinformation shared.

In step 303, one or more options are determined for providing the user'sinformation to the emergency responders in the event of an emergencyreported by or affecting the user. As discussed below in more detail,the configurable options for providing the user's information toemergency responders may include when and how different emergencyresponders will be provided with the user's information. In some cases,the user's information may be transmitted directly to emergency servicesdispatchers and/or directly to emergency responders on-route to theemergency location. In other cases, the emergency responders might notreceive the user's information, but instead may receive a set of accesscredentials, such as network credentials to access a wireless network atthe user's premises, near-field communication (NFC) information andaccess credentials, and/or Bluetooth information and access credentials.In these cases, the emergency responders may use the access credentialswhen they arrive at the emergency location (e.g., the user's premises102 a) to access one or more secure computing devices at the emergencylocation (e.g., devices 111, 113, 114, 115, and/or 116) and retrieve theuser's information from the secure devices on the user's premises 102 a.Some users may prefer that their actual user information be transmittedto on-route emergency responders, for example, to allow the emergencyresponders to review the information and prepare a strategy for handlingthe emergency situation before arriving at the user's premises 102 a.However, other users may want greater protection of their privacy andmay decide to limit the transmission of their confidential informationto their secure home communication network, in which case they mayprefer to transmit only access credentials and related information tothe on-route emergency responders, rather than the user's actualconfidential information.

Additional configurable options for providing the user's information toemergency responders may include where the user's information is to bestored and how the user's information is to be transmitted to emergencyresponders. In some examples, confidential user information may bestored in one or more secure devices on the user's premises 102 a, suchas the user's gateway 111, set top box 112, and/or personal computer113. Additionally, or as an alternative storage option, a user'sconfidential information may be stored in a secure computing deviceremote from the user's premises 102 a, such as an application server 107at a local office 103 of a network provider, a secure database of anemergency responder (e.g., a police or fire department server, anemergency dispatch server, etc.), and/or a third-party secure datastorage provider. It may be desirable in some cases to store to theuser's information at a secure remote location, instead of or inaddition to computing devices at the user's premises 102 a, for example,in the event of a fire, flood, power outage, or other emergencycircumstances that may affect the user's computing devices. However,other users may prefer to store their confidential information only onsecure computing devices within their home.

In some embodiments, it may be a user-configurable option to store someor all of the user's information in one or more wireless devices 116,such as the user's mobile phone or tablet computer. For example, someusers may elect to store only non-confidential information on theirmobile devices 116, while other users may elect to store bothconfidential and non-confidential information in a secure memory ontheir mobile devices 116. Some users may elect to store information suchas existing medical conditions and medical histories on their mobiledevice 116, so that emergency responders can retrieve this informationfrom the user's mobile device 116 even if an emergency situation doesnot occur at the user's home 102 a.

Other configurable options in various embodiments may include whichsecure networks and security protocols are to be used to transmit theuser's information and/or access credentials to the emergencyresponders, the expiration conditions of wireless access credentials(e.g., expiration time or number of access attempts), and the like.

In some cases, determining the options for providing the user'sinformation to the emergency responders in step 303 may includereceiving user input selecting and configuring various informationdelivery options via a user interface. For example, the examples userinterfaces shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B may include additional menus,options, and components to allow the user to select the informationdelivery conditions (e.g., delivery of user information or wirelessnetwork credentials to on-route emergency responders), storage options(e.g., storage only on local gateway 111, storage on local personalcomputer 114, duplicate storage on mobile device 116, backup storage onexternal system, etc.).

In various different embodiments, users may have greater or fewerchoices for configuring the delivery of information to emergencyresponders, depending on the hardware and software architecture of theuser's communication network 100, and the capabilities of the varioususer devices 200 within the network. For instance, some premises 102 amay include a network interface 120 capable of automatically creatingnew sets of wireless network access credentials, or creating newtemporary wireless networks on the fly, in which case a user may have anoption to provide emergency responders with temporary wireless networkcredentials to the user's primary network, or with credentials to atemporary wireless network rather than to the user's primary wirelessnetwork. Temporary wireless networks may be created specifically for useby emergency responders, and in some cases may be created in response tothe identification of the reported emergency (e.g., the initiation of911 call from the user's premises, the activation of a security systemalarm or smoke detector at the user's premises, etc.). In some cases,multiple temporary wireless network passwords, and/or temporary wirelessnetworks may be created corresponding different types of emergencies ordifferent types of emergency responders. For instance, a first temporarywireless network password (or temporary wireless network) may be createdand stored for law enforcement officers, a second for firefighters, athird for paramedics, and so on. Similarly, additional user options suchas enabling access to the user information via NFC or Bluetoothcommunication with certain user devices (e.g., a mobile device 116) maybe available when the user's network architecture 100 and variousdevices 200 support such capabilities.

In step 304, one or more computing devices in the communication network100 may be configured to deliver user information to emergencyresponders. As discussed above, the user information delivered toemergency responders in the event of an emergency may include the actualconfidential and non-confidential data that describes the user, theuser's home, and the user's family, roommates, etc. In other cases, theuser information delivered might only include one or more sets ofnetwork credentials, such as the name and password to a networkcontaining the emergency-related information to allow the emergencyresponders to access and retrieve the user's confidential andnon-confidential data from a secure device on the user's premises 102 aafter arriving at the emergency location. The configuration of computingdevices in step 304 may be based on the specific user informationreceived in step 301, the associated emergency types identified in step302, and the delivery options determined in step 303. For example, oneor more devices within a user's premises 102 a and/or various externaldevices may be configured to store confidential and/or non-confidentialuser information, store data associating specific user information totypes of emergencies and/or emergency responders, and to retrieve andtransmit the appropriate user information in response to a reportedemergency affecting the user or the user's premises 102 a.

In some embodiments, one or more network interface devices at the user'spremises, such as modem 110 or gateway 111, may be configured to storeand transmit the user information to emergency responders in the eventof an emergency. For example, a modem 110 and/or gateway device 111 withan integrated wireless access point (e.g., a WiFi router) may beconfigured to store the user's information in a secure memory of thedevice, and then to transmit the user's information to one or moreemergency responders via communication network 100 in the event of anemergency. Additional devices at the user's premises 102 a, such as aset top box 113 or personal computer 114 also may be configured to storeand/or transmit the user information to emergency responders viacommunication network 100. Additionally or alternatively, one or more ofthe user's mobile devices 116 (e.g., smartphones, tablet computers) maybe configured to store and/or transmit the user information to emergencyresponders via a separate wireless network. The destination networkaddresses for emergency providers (e.g., police, fire, and/or paramedicdispatch office servers) may be received from a repository of emergencyprovider addresses or may be preconfigured into the user's computingdevices by a network provider to allow the user's devices to determinethe proper destination address for delivery of the user's informationduring an emergency.

In some cases, one or more network interface devices 120 also may beconfigured to create or activate a new set of user credentials, or a newwireless network, to be used by emergency responders. For example, if amodem 110 or gateway device 111 (or other device) is configured to onlyprovide network access credentials to on-route emergency responders(rather than the user information itself), the modem 110 or gateway 111may also be configured to create a separate set of network credentialsand/or a separate wireless network (e.g., with a new SSID) to beaccessed by the emergency responders. In such examples, the user'sprivate networks and/or private access credentials may remainconfidential, and the modem 110 or gateway may be further configured todeactivate or remove any new sets of network credentials and/or newwireless networks created for emergency responders, after the emergencyis over.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example process of deliveringappropriate user information to various emergency responders afterdetermining that an emergency has been reported. The steps, features,and examples discussed in connection with FIG. 3 may be performed by oneor more computing devices in a communication system, such ascommunication network 100. As discussed below, FIG. 5 relates toretrieving and delivering certain user information to on-route emergencyresponders in response to an emergency affecting the user and/or theuser's premises 102 a. In some examples, the steps and features of FIG.5 may be performed by one or more devices entirely within a user'spremises 102 a, such as the user's network interface devices 120, settop box 113, personal computer 114, and/or wireless devices 116. Forinstance, user information may be stored on and transmitted by a user'sWiFi router (or a memory associated with the WiFi router) or personalcomputer 114 in response to an emergency condition detected by theuser's WiFi router or other devices in the user's home. In otherexamples, the steps and features of FIG. 5 may be performed by acombination of devices inside and outside of a user's premises 102 a.

In step 501, one or more computing devices may determine that anemergency was reported at a user's premises 102 a, or related to theuser premises but reported from a remote location. The reportedemergency may correspond to a 911 call placed by the user via a landlinetelephone 117 or mobile phone 116. The reported emergency also maycorrespond to an activation of a smoke detector, an activation ofsecurity system alarm, or a distress call input by a user into asecurity system at the user's premises 102 a. In other examples, usersmay report emergencies using a set top box 113, by email from a personalcomputer 114 or laptop computer 115, by a text message from a mobiledevice 116, or other techniques. Although step 501 refers to emergenciesreported at a user's premises, in other examples the emergenciesidentified in step 501 may include emergencies affecting the user thatoccur away from the user's premises, such as 911 calls or otheremergency communications reported via a user's mobile device 116 (e.g.,smartphone or tablet computer) while the user is not at home.

As discussed below, the determination of a reported emergency in step501 may be performed by a user communication device in the user'spremises 102 a (e.g., set top box 113, personal computer 114, mobiledevice 116, landline telephone 117, a smoke detector, security system,etc.), a network device in the user's premises 102 a (e.g., WiFi router,a modem 111, or gateway 112), and/or various devices outside of theuser's premises 102 a (e.g., a mobile device 116, an application server107 of a network provider, a server of an emergency responder, or athird-party system). In some examples, a WiFi router or other networkcomponents may be configured to identify different types of emergencycommunications initiated by any of the devices within the user'spremises 102 a, as these communications pass through the networkinterface 120 between the communication devices in the user's premises102 a onto the communication network 100. For instance, a WiFi router orgateway 111 may be configured to identify 911 calls made from landlinephones 117 or mobile phones 116 within the premises 102 a, alarm systemactivations and user distress calls within the premises 102 a, and otheremergency communications sent by a user via set top box 113, personalcomputers 114, and other communication devices or systems in the user'spremises 102 a. For example, deep packet inspection or similar or othertype of data analyses can be performed to identify emergencycommunication information. In other cases, rather than a network device120 identifying emergency communications, one or more of the individualdevices (e.g., 113-117) in the premises 102 a may detect an outgoingemergency communication initiated by a user (step 501), and then maytransmit a separate signal indicating the outgoing emergencycommunication to a computing device within the network interface 120, alocal office 103 of a network provider, and/or a server of an emergencyprovider or other external server.

In other examples, the determination of a reported emergency in step 501may be performed by a server of a network provider configured toidentify various emergency communications initiated from any premises102 to which the network provider 103 is connected. For example,application server 107 may execute an application to detect 911 calls,activations of security systems and fire detection systems, and otheremergency transmissions from users in premises 102. Additionally, thedetermination of a reported emergency in step 501 may be performed by aserver of an emergency responder, such as emergency services dispatchserver, police or fire department server, or another third-party serverconfigured to receive and identify emergency communications from users.

In step 502, after determining that an emergency has been reported instep 501, one or more computing devices may be used to identify anemergency type and/or a type of emergency responders (e.g.,firefighters, law enforcement officers, and/or paramedics) that may bedispatched to the emergency location. In some cases, the type ofemergency and/or the type of the emergency responders may be determinedbased on the type or nature of the emergency communication. For example,if the communication reporting the emergency is the activation of asmoke alarm or fire detection system, then the type of emergency (e.g.,a potential fire) and the type of responders to be dispatched (e.g.,firefighters) may be determined based on the nature of the emergencycommunication and location of the nearest responder unit. In otherexamples, if the emergency identified in step 501 is the activation ofan intruder alarm of a security system, then an automatic determinationmay identify law enforcement officers as the appropriate the emergencyresponders, and if the emergency identified in step 501 is theactivation of a personal emergency medical response system of an elderlyor infirm user, then an automatic determination may identify paramedicsas the appropriate the emergency responders, and so on.

In other examples, the type of emergency and/or the type of theemergency responders that may be dispatched might not be determined fromtype the emergency communication only. For example, the detection of a911 call or other general emergency communications may be initiated byusers in response to fires, break-ins and home disturbances, gas leaks,floods, medical emergencies, and other various types of emergencies.

In the case of 911 calls or other general emergency communications, thetypes of emergencies and/or emergency responders may be determined usingvarious techniques. In some cases, the user may identify the type ofemergency and/or type of emergency with a separate action or separatecommunication. For instance, during or after a 911 call, the user maypress a button on his/her phone to indicate a type of emergency or typeof emergency responder to be dispatched. The user also may initiate afollow up communication such as an email, text message, etc., by phone,set top box, etc., or any other computing device, to identify the typeof emergency or type of emergency responders to be dispatched. In othercases, a recipient of the user's emergency communication may identifythe emergency type and emergency responders in step 502. For example,after communicating with the user, a 911 operator or other emergencyservices dispatcher may classify the emergency type and direct theappropriate response personnel to the emergency location. During orafter this process, the operator/dispatcher (or other recipient) mayinitiate a communication to the computing device(s) responsible forproviding the user's information to the emergency responders, such asthe user's WiFi router or other network interface device 120, the user'spersonal computer 114, the user's mobile phone 116, an applicationserver 107 of a network provider, or any other device configured toprovide information to on-route emergency responders (discussed below insteps 504-505).

The emergency type(s) and/or the type(s) of emergency responders thatmay be dispatched to an emergency also may be determined in step 502 byone or more automated processes operating at the user's premises 102 a,a network provider office 103, or other external system. For example,speech recognition and analysis software executing on the user'spersonal computer 114, network interface 120, or on an externalapplication server 107 may be configured to identify a 911 call or othergeneral emergency communication (e.g., emergency emails, text messages),and then may parse and analyze the voice or text communication toidentify an emergency type and the type of emergency responders that maybe dispatched to the emergency location.

In step 503, one or more computing devices at the user's premises 102 a,network provider office 103, emergency services provider, and/or otherexternal system, may compare the type of emergency and other emergencycharacteristics to the previously stored user settings for deliveringinformation to emergency responders, and based on the comparison(s), maydetermine whether or not various user information should be delivered toemergency responders. As discussed above in step 302, and illustrated inFIGS. 4A and 4B, users may designate specific types and/or pieces ofinformation to be provided to various emergency responders in variousdifferent emergency situations. Thus, the determination in step 503 mayinclude accessing the user's previous designations for providingemergency information, and comparing those designations to the typeand/or characteristics of the emergency reported in step 501. If anemergency reported in step 501 is the activation of a security system atthe user's premises, and if the user has designated (in step 302, forexample) that no confidential information should be delivered to lawenforcement officers and/or in response to a security system activation,then it may be determined in step 503 that no user information should beprovided to emergency responders (503:No). As another example, if thereported emergency is a medical emergency for a household member, and ifthe user has designated that the member's confidential medicalinformation should be delivered to paramedics and/or other emergencyresponders in the event of a medical emergency, then it may bedetermined in step 503 that user information should be provided(503:Yes).

Multiple determinations may be performed in step 503 in response to asingle emergency. In some cases, different information may be providedto different types of emergency responders for different types ofemergencies. For example, if the emergency reported in step 501 mayrequire responses by different types of emergency responders (e.g., lawenforcement officers and firefighters), then multiple determinations maybe executed in step 503 to determine that confidential user informationmay be provided to one set of emergency responders but not the other, orthat different types of confidential user information may be provided tothe different emergency responders.

After determining that user information should be delivered to one ormore emergency responders (503:Yes), the method(s) and technique(s) fordelivering the emergency information may be determined in step 504. Asdiscussed above in reference to step 303, users may set configurableoptions for providing their confidential or non-confidential informationto various emergency responders. For example, users at premises 102 a,network administrators, emergency services providers, and/or other usersmay determine whether a user's information will be transmitted directlyto emergency responders (e.g., on-route responders and/or dispatchers),or whether only certain access credentials and related information willbe transmitted to allow the emergency responders to connect to one ormore computing devices at the user's premises 102 a and retrieve theuser's information. In some cases, emergency responders also may havedelivery preferences for receiving a user's emergency information. Forinstance, if a user indicated in step 303 that only access credentialsshould be transmitted to on-route emergency responders, then the userand/or the emergency responders may have further preferences regardingthe types of access credentials provided (e.g., a WiFi network name andpassword to a primary or secondary wireless network on a premises 102 a,NFC credentials, or Bluetooth credentials, etc.) and the devices thatthe emergency responders may connect to using the access credentials(e.g., the user's WiFi router, PC 114, mobile device 116, etc.). Forinstance, an emergency responder may request the type of accesscredentials and/or host devices that are compatible with the software orhardware on emergency responder's mobile device.

After determining that user information should be delivered to one ormore emergency responders (step 503), and determine the delivery methodsand preferences (step 504), the appropriate information may be deliveredin step 505. As discussed above, the delivery of confidential and/ornon-confidential user information may include transmitting the actualuser information, or alternatively may include transmitting accesscredentials to allow the emergency responders to connect to one or moredevices and retrieve the user information after arriving at the user'spremises 102 a. Thus, the delivery of user information in step 505 mayinclude transmitting the actual user information and/or accesscredentials to emergency dispatchers, on-route emergency responders, oran emergency services computing system. In some cases, user informationand/or access credentials may be transmitted by a WiFi router or othernetwork device 120, set top box 113, personal computer 114, mobiledevice 116, or other computing device at the user's premises 102 a, viaa communication network 100 and/or network office 103, to an emergencyservices system such as a dispatcher or mobile devices of on-routeemergency responders. The destination network addresses for suchcommunications may be pre-programmed into the user's home or mobilecomputing devices (e.g., network addresses or phone numbers of policeservices, fire services, paramedic services, or other emergency dispatchservices), or may be received by the user's home or mobile computingdevices only after the emergency is reported, for example, a phonenumber or network address of an on-route emergency responder may betransmitted from an emergency dispatch server, alarm company server, orthe like, to a user's computing device. In other cases, if the user'sinformation was previously stored on a device outside of the user'spremises 102 a, such as an application server 107 or server of anemergency services provider, then the delivery of the user informationin step 505 may be performed by these external devices and need notinclude any action by any computing device within the user's premise 102a.

Referring now to FIG. 6, an example user interface is shown displayinguser information on an emergency responder device. In this example, adisplay screen 600 a may correspond to a mobile device (e.g., mobilephone, tablet computer, etc.) of an emergency services dispatcher oron-route emergency provider, such as a firefighter, paramedic, or otheremergency responder. In this case, fire and medical emergency respondershave been dispatched to a user's home, and the information provided tothe responders includes the address, a description of the user's homeincluding locations of the stairs and bedrooms, basement accessinformation, and medical information about the current residents of thehome. As discussed above, different types of user information may beprovided for different types of emergencies and/or to different types ofemergency responders. For instance, if the emergency in this example wasa home break-in or an in-progress violent crime, the law enforcementofficers responding to the emergency may be provided a different set ofinformation, such as the criminal histories of the current residents,information about previous break-ins or crimes occurring at the address,and the presence of dogs, firearms, or other potential threats at theaddress.

When access credentials are transmitted to the mobile device of anemergency responder in step 505, rather than transmitting the userinformation itself, additional steps may be performed to configuredevices on the user's premises 102 a to securely provide the userinformation to the emergency responders upon arrival. For example, ifthe network credentials (e.g., wireless network name and password) forthe user's home WiFi network are transmitted, then the user's WiFirouter, personal computer 114, or other device may be configured toconfirm that the user's information will be accessible upon connectionto the network. When an emergency responder arrives at the user'spremises 102 a, a secure wireless connection may be established betweena wireless access point of the user's wireless network (e.g., a WiFirouter) and a mobile device of an emergency responder, to allow theemergency responder to login to the user's wireless network and toretrieve the user's information. As discussed above, a user maydesignate certain types of confidential and non-confidential informationfor different types of emergency response personnel. Thus, in someexamples, after logging in to the user's wireless network, the emergencyresponder's mobile device may transmit information to the user's WiFirouter or other device on the user's premises 102 a identifying the typeof emergency response personnel (e.g., law enforcement officers,firefighters, paramedics, etc.) to the user's wireless network. Theemergency responder's mobile device may then request the userinformation that has been previously designated for that type ofemergency responder.

In other cases, the user's delivery options and preferences (designatedin step 303) may specify that a new set of access credentials should becreated for the emergency responders (e.g., a temporary networkpassword), or even a new temporary wireless network within the user'spremises 102 a, to be used by the emergency responders so that theuser's primary WiFi network credentials may remain confidential. In suchcases, step 505 may include creating a new temporary password and/ortemporary wireless network within the WiFi router or other devices ofthe user's network interface 120, and then securely transmitting thenewly-created network credentials to the emergency responders.

When creating a new temporary WiFi network password, or establishing anew temporary WiFi network, in step 505, the user's networkinfrastructure 120 also may be configured to disable or remove thetemporary password or network after it has been accessed by theemergency responders. Temporary passwords and/or temporary wirelessnetworks may be configured to support a predetermined and limited numberof network access attempts or connections, (e.g., 1, 2, 3, . . . , 10,etc.), or may be configured to remain active for a predetermined periodof time (e.g., 1 hour, 2 hours, . . . , 12 hours, 24 hours, etc.) afterbeing established or after the delivery of user information to a mobiledevice of an emergency responder. In some cases, an established set ofwireless network access credentials or other security information may beperiodically expired by a wireless access point (e.g., WiFi router) orother network device, and may be replaced with new wireless networkaccess credentials or other security information.

When using other communication techniques, rather than WiFi connectionsto wireless networks, different types of access credential and otherinformation may be transmitted in step 505 depending on thecommunication techniques used. For example, to allow emergencyresponders to retrieve user information via a near-field communication(NFC) tag, the location of the NFC tag within the user's premises 102 aand/or a password to the NFC tag may be transmitted in step 505. Thelocation of an NFC tag may correspond to a user device (e.g., laptop 115or mobile phone 116) having an installed NFC chip. In other examples, auser may have one or more NFC tags installed at fixed locations in theuser's premises (e.g., near the front door to provide home information,outside of individual bedrooms to provider individual medical data,etc.). Bluetooth information also may be provided to emergencyresponders in certain embodiments. Such Bluetooth information mayinclude the names and locations of the Bluetooth device(s) at the user'spremises 102 a that are configured to provide the user information toemergency responders, such as the user's set top box 113, personalcomputer 114, laptop computer 115, and/or mobile device 116. A Bluetoothpasskey or other authentication data also may be provided in step 505 toallow the emergency providers to securely connect to the Bluetoothdevice and retrieve the user's information after arriving at the user'spremises 102 a.

Although example embodiments are described above, the various featuresand steps may be combined, divided, omitted, rearranged, revised and/oraugmented in any desired manner, depending on the specific outcomeand/or application. Various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in art. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements as are made obvious by this disclosureare intended to be part of this description though not expressly statedherein, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of exampleonly, and not limiting. This patent is limited only as defined in thefollowing claims and equivalents thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: determining, by a firstcomputing device, that a request for emergency assistance has beeninitiated at an emergency location associated with a user; determining,by the first computing device and in response to the request, that theuser has granted approval for delivery of emergency-related informationto emergency responders via a wireless network at the emergencylocation; generating, by the first computing device and based on therequest for the emergency assistance, wireless network securityinformation comprising a service set identifier (SSID) and a passwordfor the wireless network; and providing, by the first computing deviceand to one or more emergency responder devices associated with theemergency responders, the emergency-related information, wherein theproviding the emergency-related information comprises: delivering thewireless network security information for the wireless network, whereinthe wireless network security information is used to access theemergency-related information maintained in one or more computingdevices in the wireless network.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theproviding the emergency-related information further comprisestransmitting a request to a second computing device that is differentfrom the first computing device and that securely stores the wirelessnetwork security information.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein therequest to the second computing device comprises an identification of asubset of emergency-related information securely stored by the secondcomputing device.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storinginformation indicating a plurality of different emergency types, and foreach different emergency type, storing information identifying one ormore items of emergency-related information to be provided to the one ormore emergency responder devices in response to a request for emergencyassistance.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing asecure wireless connection between a wireless access point of thewireless network at the emergency location and a wireless device of theone or more emergency responder devices after one or more emergencyresponders arrive at the emergency location.
 6. The method of claim 5,further comprising transferring medical information regarding the userto the wireless device of the one or more emergency responder devicesusing the secure wireless connection.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe wireless network security information for the wireless network atthe emergency location differs from other wireless network securityinformation used to access the wireless network in non-emergencysituations.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising expiring thewireless network security information after a predetermined number ofnetwork access attempts or a predetermined number of networkconnections; and replacing the wireless network security informationwith new wireless network security information based on an emergencytype associated with the request for emergency assistance.
 9. The methodof claim 5, wherein the establishing is performed after determining thatthe one or more emergency responders have arrived at the emergencylocation within a predetermined period of time since the request foremergency assistance was initiated.
 10. A method comprising:determining, by a first computing device, an emergency location for anemergency event associated with a user; determining, by the firstcomputing device, an emergency type of the emergency event; generatingby the first computing device and based on the emergency event, wirelessnetwork security information comprising a service set identifier (SSID)and a password for a wireless network at the emergency location;detecting, by the first computing device, a wireless device associatedwith an emergency responder at the emergency location; causing, by thefirst computing device, one or more computing devices storing emergencyinformation at the emergency location to deliver the wireless networksecurity information to the wireless device; and causing, by the firstcomputing device, the one or more computing devices to deliver, via thewireless network, emergency information associated with the emergencytype to the wireless device.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein theemergency information associated with the emergency type comprisesinformation indicating different subsets of user information to besupplied to firefighters, law enforcement officers, and medicalpersonnel.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the different subsets ofuser information comprise at least one item of information common to thedifferent subsets, and at least one item of information not common amongthe different subsets.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the emergencyinformation associated with the emergency type further comprises:location information for one or more near field communication (NFC)tags, wherein the one or more NFC tags are located at the emergencylocation; and a password associated with each NFC tag of the one or moreNFC tags.
 14. The method of claim 10, further comprising: in response todetermining that a predetermined period of time has passed, apredetermined number of network access attempts have been initiated, ora predetermined number of network connections have been made, sincereceiving the emergency information associated with the emergency type,expiring a login credential of the wireless network.
 15. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: determining that the wireless deviceassociated with the emergency responder has accessed the emergencyinformation over a secure wireless connection between a wireless accesspoint of the wireless network at the emergency location and the one ormore computing devices storing the emergency information.
 16. The methodof claim 15, wherein the emergency information comprises a plurality ofitems of information corresponding to the emergency type of theemergency event, and wherein the plurality of items of informationcomprises information identifying different subsets of user informationto be supplied to firefighters, law enforcement officers, and medicalpersonnel.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the different subsetscomprise at least one item of information common to the differentsubsets, and at least one item of information not common among thedifferent subsets.
 18. A method comprising: determining, by a firstcomputing device, that a request for emergency assistance has beeninitiated at an emergency location associated with a user; in responseto the request, causing establishment of a temporary emergencyinformation wireless network at the emergency location, the temporaryemergency information wireless network comprising a service setidentifier (SSID) and a password; and providing, by the first computingdevice, the SSID and the password, to one or more emergency responderdevices to allow the one or more emergency responder devices to accessthe temporary emergency information wireless network at the emergencylocation and retrieve user information associated with the emergencyassistance from one or more computing devices storing the userinformation in the temporary emergency information wireless network. 19.The method of claim 18, further comprising: in response to determiningthat a predetermined period of time has passed, a predetermined numberof network access attempts have been initiated, or a predeterminednumber of network connections have been made, since the providing of theSSID and the password, expiring the SSID and the password.
 20. Themethod of claim 18, further comprising: establishing a secure wirelessconnection between a wireless access point of the temporary emergencyinformation wireless network at the emergency location and a wirelessdevice of the one or more emergency responder devices when one or moreemergency responders arrive at the emergency location.